Permanent foundation for paintings



March 17, 1925. v 1,529,729

H. E. THOMPSON PERMANENT FOUNDATION FOR PAINTINGS Filed Oct. 22, 1923 Patented Mar: 17, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PERMANENT FOUNDATION FOR PAINTINGS.

Application med October 22, 1923. Serial No. 670,158.

To all whom t may concern.'

' Be it known that I, HERBERT E. THOMP- soN, a citizen of the United States, residing at 780 Lexin ton St., Waltham, in the county ofMi dlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain newI and useful Improvements in Permanent Foundations for Paintingsfof which the following is a specification. Y

This invention relates to the fine arts and particularly to permanent and unalterable foundations for paintings.

While not Alimited in its application thereto, my invention is particularly adapted for use as a permanent foundation for old paintings and masterpieces havingA canvas or wood foundations which have deteriorated or have been destroyed by age. According to present practices, the defective foundations of such paintings are carefully removed from the rear of the painting which' is then mounted upon a new canvas. Obviously this expedient offers only a temporary relief, since the new canvas foundation is affected and will in time be destroyed by moisture and the otherinfluenceswhich destroyed the originalcanvas.

An object of the invention is to provide a permanent foundation for paintings which will not be affected by moisture and which will not deteriorate with age. More specifically an object of the invention is to provide a permanent foundation com rising a metal plate having a coating xed thereto and upon which oil or water colors may be painted or to which a previously prepared painting may be transferred.

Embodiments of my invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which,

Fig. 1 is an elevation, partly in section, of a permanent foundation embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged horizontal section f of the foundation'as taken on line 2--2 of Fig. l;

ig. 3 is a fra entary section similar to Fig. 2 but great y enlarged;

Fig. 4 is'an elevation, partly in section of a modified construction, and

Fi 5 is a fragmentary horizontal section lllustrating a further modification.

' In the drawing, the numeral 1 designates the metal plate which provides the necessary backing for the picture receivingsurface 2. While various metals' and alloys,

Aing the canvas to the such as copper, zinc or a ferro-nickel alloy such as invar may be used, I prefer to use aluminum as this metal is lighter than the other metals or alloys and possesses the same resistance to corr sion. The surface coating 2 is preferably of gesso, a composition of glue or size, whiting and oil.

" To( form a permanent union, the metal backing 1 and the coat-ing 2 are mechanically interlocked by means of undercut projections 3 which are formed on the surface of the plate with a pointed tool. To further increase the adhesion, the burred plate 1 is given a coat 4 of varnish, preferably a lac varnish which is allowed to harden before the gesso is applied. The gesso coating may be applied by hand or by machine according to known methods of applying smooth plastic coatings. Y

If desired, the metal plate 1 may be etched by a sand blast or acid as indicated at 5 in Fig. 4, either before or after the projections 3 vare formed on the plate. When so etched, the adhesion between the plate and the varnish coating 4 is increased. In the modification shown in-F ig. 5, the interlocking of the plate and the gesso coating is secured by undercut recesses 6,- but no burrs project above the surface ofthe plate as in the form shown in Figs. 2 and 3. When a plate of this type is employed a thinner la'yer of the gesso may be used.

A, coated vmetal panel or permanent foundation such as described may be painted upon with oil or water colors in the usual way or the coated metal panel may be used as a permanent backing for previously prepared paintings. If the canvas or other foundation of a painting is in good condition, the painting may be mounted on the coated metal plate by cementing or tixesso surface with suitable adhesives. Ordinarily, however, a painting will be given a new foundation only when the original foundation is defec; tive. In such cases the canvas or other foundation is carefully abraded and icked from the rear of thepicture until o y the paint film remains. The paint lm may then be transferred and fixed to the permanentcoated metal panel by the use of materials and processes which are now employed in transferring a paint/ing to a canvas foundation. 4

It will be apparentl that the .invention is not limited to the specific embodiments A herein described, since various changes may iisv ` recesses on one 'face thereof, an

' haphazar be lmade in the construction without departing from the spirit of my invention, one such chan e, for example, being the use of projections on the late instead of the alined projections whic are shown in the'drawings I claim:

1. A permanent foundation for paintings comprisinga metal plate and a coating of gesso adapted to receive a paintin said metal plate' and coating being mec mically interlocked. l

2. A permanent foundation for paintings comprising a. metal plate havin `undercut a coating of esso adapted to receive a. painting [mec anically interlocked to, 'said plate by said undercutrecesses.

3. A permanent foundation for paintings, i

comprising a metal plate-having undercut recesses on one face thereof, a coating of varnish on said recessed face, and a coating of gesso adapted to receive apainting over said Varnish coating and mechanically interlocked to said plate by said undercut recesses. l

4. A permanent foundation for paintings,

comprising an aluminum plate and a coatin of gesso mechanically interlocked to said plate'. 4

5. A ernfianen'tI foundation for paintings,

comprising an 4aluminum plate having recesses on one face thereof, a coating of varnish on said recessed face and a coating of Agesso mechanically interlocked to said plate y said recesses.

Inl testimony whereof, I aiiix my signature. l

' HERBERT E. THOMPSON. 

